Go Goa!

Five girls, All first-timers to Goa, planned for a trip when we knew that wedding bells for pari is near. We had shortlisted 3 places out of which Goa was the feasible option ;) After lots of mail chains with 'No', 'May be', 'Not this time', 'busy', we could finally make it happen and this one effortlessly wins a place in the "Best trips of my life".

On September 29th, amidst busy schedules and high priority tasks, we were busy packing for the 6:30 bus. It dint matter what we packed/left all we were thinking was goa! beaches, sand, endless water, water sports and ofcourse, shopping :P . Though the bus we booked was AC sleeper, it turned out to be in my favor, it had windows! At first, it dint look like an AC sleeper at all, well, even after many glances it wasn't even close, The driver had to confirm us that it is an AC bus! Though the bus wasn't that great, the journey was wonderful, then i realized, its not the bus that matters but the journey! (Ring any bells guys?? hehehe ;) )

We had booked five upper berth seats, but most of the time, we were all in the first 3 seats, chit-chatting.. planning.. gossiping. And the conductor was worried that the upper berth may not take the weight! (I was happy that at least someone thinks that way :P ) poor chap, he definitely had a tough time directing us to occupy the rest of them!

Goa is much more admirable than i thought - look alike buildings, well maintained roads, boundless blue sea... sunset.. busy shopping streets..  it was captivating and simply amazing! We stayed at Raman resort, Calangute. Its a beach resort and is filled with white sand. The ambiance looked so apt for a beach resort. The rooms were well maintained. I especially loved the restaurant there, it had a sit-out facing the beach and you could listen to the roars of the waves to your hearts content. Its quite calm and private there. We sat late in the night, it was so peaceful and relaxing with just the roars of the sea and nothing else! (All thanks to Ashwini :) ).

We hired two-wheeler to roam around the city. It was fun riding in goa, the roads were empty and are well maintained. A person who rides in bangalore traffic would definitely enjoy the best, riding in goa! Without knowing the city at all, we could reach our destination, hassle free. I don't recall any incidents of loosing the track or wondering where we are, apart from rounding every circle we came across, twice!! ;) For me, every road looked the same! But guess The Google Maps and our navigator were best at work :)

I can go on and on about Goa and the things we did, but here are the must-do things, which i think should not be missed if you are in Goa -

1. Chapora Fort - Early morning is the best time - you could see the sunrise and enjoy the view of Vegator beach.
2. Hire a bike and roam around the city.. oops, sorry.. state!!
3. Water sports - Enjoy the ride on waves and the feel of adrenaline rush when you race against the waves. Banana ride is just too awesome, its a must try. I dint like para-sailing much, since it was for just 10 mins. but yes, it is worth a try.. but im sure most of them are disappointed when they pull back the rope.
4. Evening walk from calangute to baga beach.. I missed this one though. By evening, water sports recedes so you dont find much people around. A walk in the beach at sunset is mesmerizing.
5. Alcove resort (for food) - Food is just amazing here, If you are a pure vegetarian then this place is like an oasis in the desert ;) Ofcourse, those who want to try sea food, you have varieties.
6. Shopping :-P - If you are a shopaholic and know bargaining, you could shop to your hearts content :)

This post was long time due. Its been almost 2 n half months now, but still the memories are so vivid and crystal clear and im happy to be a part of it :)

Girls day out

A month before.. shika announced that she will be leaving for IIM - Indore to pursue one year Executive MBA! She had this in her mind from long time so everyone was very happy only to realize later that it would mean she will be leaving us. That's when we thought we should have a day out and spend the whole day enjoying and chit-chatting to our hearts content. :)

After a lot of mail exchange and a firm, resolute 'YES' from all nine of us, we finally decided to spend the weekend in Bhadra River Camp. Ofcourse, this would have been just a dream without Archie :) A day before the trip she even sent out a mail with the list of obligatory things!! Special thanks to her!

For all those who think that girls are never on-time when it comes to trip and parties, let me tell you, we were on-time! all nine of us (Ofcourse, 15 mins should be negligible when considered the exaggeration they make ;)). We left our PG by 5.45, picked up soumya on the way and yes our journey started! Dumb charades, Antakshari, chit-chatting and most important.. photo sessions ;)

Nothing could deter us from capturing the sunflower field. Though the flowers were facing their back (Not really ready for a photo shoot), our gang twisted its neck to face towards us ;) When the owner started shouting, we pacified him by clicking him too.. :)

We reached the place by around 1.30 PM. Its rich serene beauty caught our eyes the moment we stepped out of the van. The only expression you could see in everyone's face was 'WOW!!' It was beautiful.. river flowing amidst the greenery and right next to the camp. The place was very peaceful, well, not after we reached :P

We hogged on our delicious lunch. I must admit, the food there was really amazing and the maintainance was irreproachable. Finally, after a lot of discussion we set our goal on swimming. Though some of our hearts sunk the moment we heard about the leeches, we still decided to go. Its a 2 Km trek inside the forest. The river was quite still at this place and made the perfect place to swim. hmm, not so perfect.. we realized it when we had to swim against the river current.. Shika made the daring effort to swim against it only to find herself in the same position she was 2 mins before. :) We swam, screamed and enjoyed until our energy drained out.

In a screaming competition, sushma would have topped us all! On our way back, one of the leeches mistakenly bit her leg and she screamed as if a big ugly monster has caught her leg.. The whole place quivered in shock. Poor creature, Im sure it would have run for its life leaving her leg.

The following day also was very eventful. Went out for fishing.. well, not really, after seeing the dreadful scene of life-saving-attempts of the fishes we decided to quit that activity and just listen to the roars of the river. A perfect lullaby. Back in the camp, we played throw ball and shuttle for sometime and bags were packed for the return journey.

None of us were ready to go back. The word office seemed more appalling than the leaches ;) At last, we were back in Namma Bengaluru by 10 PM to continue our mechanical routine and hoping that someday we will again make our way back to Nature.

Pondicherry trip

It was friday evening.. some of us were gearing up for a weekend trip. Its been a week since we finalized on pondicherry. Everything was planned to avoid last-minute rush.. however it dint make much of a difference to me! 4.30 in the evening, i was busy stuffing everything into my bag.. trying to recollect things when my phone buzzed forcing me to leave.

We started our journey at around 6. Being unsure about the place where we booked our guest room, missing the route was expected. At around 3 in the morning we were busy searching for the place! First of all none of us knew tamil except manju... to second it, all sign boards were in tamil.. Damn! luckily, we could find some people having a morning walk at that time in the night who helped us find the way!!(I assume they were humans since they responded properly and none seemed creepy)

Wait, I can go on and on about various things we did but this time i try to keep it short :) (though i finished two paragraphs already :P). This made me wonder what not to write. I pondered over my mind again and again and finally came up with some-kind-of solution...

"Whats special about pondicherry"

Dune beach

Is it the humid weather which magically transform your hairs into wires or is it the panoramic view of endless sea.. the auroville, where they worship humanity or the french colony.. is it the rendezvous,  french breakfast or CK's foodstaurant where we hogged like we never had food.. is it the swimming pool in the guest house or just friends chit-chatting!

Matrmandir in Auroville

Rock beach

Guess its not a solution but a probe, which had my hands full on which one to prioritize.. coz everytime i think of it, im mazed.. Its tough to point out one thing and say "hey look this is wonderful in pondicherry"..  its the nice blend of everything, which makes it an amazing place. There is auroville, which is so very peaceful and calm and then, there is rock beach where the sea roars.. there is paradise beach which is heavenly as well as Dune beach which is secluded and wonderful. There is french colony where you get to see name plates you can never understand and nehru street where you can shop to ur contentment! But wherever you go, you loose yourself to it!

Paradise island

P.S : To all the veggies out there planning for pondicherry trip, dont miss CK's foodstaurant in nehru street(guess so). Food is wonderful there..(or probably we were damn hungry!) Ofcourse you might have heard about french breakfast anyway!